Dual Credit High School (Online?)

[midori]

Some of the local homeschooling threads reminded me about Angelicum Academy’s online school, which runs K-12, but for its high school students, it allows them to graduate with an Associate’s Degree (either Liberal Arts or Theology), because they run dual-credit classes with Holy Apostles College & Seminary out of CT. After an extra year post-grade-12, they can earn their BA (Theology, History, Philosophy, English). Anyhow, it basically runs $14,000 for the Associate’s (first 75 credit hours), and then an extra $15,000 to wrap up the extra 45 credit hours to earn the BA.

I had chatted with the high school counselor at our local public school to see what sort of dual-credit courses they were offering locally, because the costs of tuition have been skyrocketing. When I enrolled, I got a dorm room, dining plan, and tuition for about $8-$10k/year at a private university… my BA ran me about $40k, mumblemumble years ago, and I still graduated with about $16k in debt. Nowadays, the same school runs $40k for 2 semesters… And my oldest is still only 10, so he still has eight more years of rate hikes before he starts!

Anyhow, the local high school had a dual credit program partnering with a local community college… but it was focused on EMT, cosmetology, and machining/welding.

Has anyone noticed something sort of like the Angelicum/Holy Apostles relationship in an online school, but with a broader variety of majors from which to choose? More like Math, Geoscience, Languages, Biology, Chemistry? What I really ought to do is apprentice my kids to the local plumbers, and they’ll be set for life— that will never get outsourced overseas! (Yes, I know a big chunk of going to college is learning to be independent, learning life skills, learning to think, developing into an adult, learning to manage your time and your resources, etc— but I’m trying to work on those things from K-12, for free, rather than trying to spend $60k/year for them to do it somewhere else! )

My own kids still have a while before we need to figure out what kind of door they need unlocked, so we know what kind of key to provide them… but it’s nice to know others’ research/experiences.

Thanks!

 

[Allegra]

If you are homeschooling, why do you have to have “duel enrollment”? Why not just enroll in the junior college classes? I had a voice teacher that had seven kids and most of them GEDed at 16, took the ACT and enrolled in the local junior college and had associates degrees by the time they would have normally graduated high school. At the time, there was a really sweet deal that if you were under the age of 18, you could apply to take the classes for free. (Not really for free. Someone was paying for them, but I’m not sure if it was the state or the school itself.)

 

[midori]

No, I homeschooled the kids before, and I’m supplementing their current public school with afterschooling, but we live in a small, rural community, and DH wants the kids to grow up with the other kids, and know them. Neither he nor I grew up with any roots, and so it’s important for him to give that to them. Very few of the local families go to the Catholic church; our neighborhood is very elderly; school is pretty much the only place for them to get to know the local kids.

However, there’s a good chance that the idea of enrolling them in an online high school might be more palatable to DH if it came with the bonus of getting a degree knocked out for $x instead of $6x or $10x or whatever. I’d be willing to homeschool/virtual school them for high school, if DH is satisfied that eight years of public school was sufficient to give them those roots he wants to— and the idea of savings would be a good motivator! However, he would probably sneer at a Philosophy or Theology degree… and he was an ENG/HIS major himself…

So, high school is only four years away… so I’m shopping for my options to see what I can offer for consideration, beyond what I’ve found on my own.

 

[Allegra]

Well, that is the downside of why my voice teacher did. His kids were hanging out with much older kids. I guess they handled it okay though.

 

[1ke]

Has anyone noticed something sort of like the Angelicum/Holy Apostles relationship in an online school, but with a broader variety of majors from which to choose?

Yes. It varies widely by school district.

My nephews live in Iowa and my older nephew just finished his first year of college and he has dual credit from high school in partnership with the 2 year junior college that transfers credits to the Iowa state universities— so after one year he is now classified as a junior in college.

My niece and nephews in neighboring Wisconsin didn’t have dual credit but they had AP courses.

Our school district (also in WI) has dual credit with the local 2 year school that feeds into the UW system for 4 year degrees.

Where I grew up in TX, a blue collar area full of chemical plants and refineries (you’ve seen Urban Cowboy right??) has vocational-tech programs that have high schoolers certified in welding, cosmetology, pipe fitting, etc., by the time they are out of high school. They also have the dual credit for the academic track folks as well.

It is really dependent upon how strong the local school district superintendent and board are, and how well they form local partnerships and focus on bringing innovation to their school.